Friday, October 5, 2012

Gertrude and Claudius



I mentioned in class that I personally do not feel that there was an improper relationship between Gertrude and Claudius prior to the death of King Hamlet. I know that other teachers share varying opinions. What are your thoughts on this topic? What examples can you give from the text to back up your opinion? Do you think it is relevant to the plot either way? Do you think Shakespeare really cared what we made of that relationship?

3 comments:

Kaedee said...

Ohhh I don't know. A lot of signs point to yes... but I want to believe that they're better than that.

victoriarose said...

I don't think it's relevant to the plot. There are still other reasons why Claudius would have wanted to kill the King, not just to take his wife. I also don't really think it was written one way or another. I think Shakespeare wrote it so that there would be something left up to the imagination of the viewers/readers.

Olivia said...

I say yes. I could be reading WAY too much into things, but it seems like Shakespeare throws little tidbits into the play every so often that really support that theory. Maybe he didn't intend for you to be absolutely fixed on their relationship, but I think he meant for it to be present. Possibly he created it to support Hamlet's "madness".....having a situation like that might just cause someone to go crazy! It definitely isn't the main deal in the play, but I really do believe that they had a pre-existing relationship...or I guess you could say affair....which led to the murder of Hamlet's father which led to alllll of this!